EU migrants will not get preferential access to the UK after Brexit, hints May
THERESA May has given her biggest hint yet that European citizens will not have preferential access to the UK after Brexit.
The Prime Minister has instead signalled that she prefers a ‘global’ system – which would treat EU and nonEU migrants the same.
Her comments come despite speculation that she may choose to give migrants from the bloc better access in order to smooth negotiations with Brussels.
Pressed on the issue in an interview aired last night, Mrs May suggested there would not be two ‘sets of rules’.
‘The message from the British people is very simple,’ she told the BBC’s Panorama programme. ‘It was they don’t want a situation where they could see people coming from the European Union having... those automatic rights in terms of coming to the United Kingdom, and a set of rules for people from outside the European Union.
‘What we will be doing is putting forward a set of rules for people from the European Union and people from outside.’
Mrs May also warned MPs they will have a choice between her proposed deal with Brussels – or no deal at all.
She said that if Parliament did not ratify the Chequers plan, ‘I think that the alternative to that will be having no deal.’
The Prime Minister made her remarks as the Migration Advisory Committee prepares to publish its assessment of the impact EU nationals have on the economy.
The independent panel was commissioned by the Government to help ministers devise a new immigration system for after Britain leaves the EU in March. A study commissioned by the panel, which is published today, found that European migrants living in the UK contribute £2,300 more to the public purse each year than the average adult. There were around 2.3million EU migrants working in the UK in 2017.
During her interview, Mrs May also gave one of her most positive forecasts yet for Britain’s future after Brexit, saying: ‘I believe that our best days are ahead of us.’ Meanwhile, No 10 yesterday slapped down Boris Johnson after he warned that Britain was heading for a ‘spectacular political car crash’ if the Government sticks to Mrs May’s Brexit blueprint.
The former foreign secretary said unless she dropped her Chequers plan, which would see the UK remain closely aligned to Brussels on goods and regulation, Britain was ‘heading full throttle for the ditch with a total write-off of Brexit’. But the Prime Minister’s spokesman suggested Mr Johnson was simply engaged in political manoeuvring.
Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg also warned Mrs May not to hold a Commons showdown on the Chequers plan, saying it would be ‘foolish’ to put the plan to a vote as it had ‘very little support’.
The proposals are likely to be discussed at a Cabinet meeting next week. Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark are set to resist tight restrictions, but Environment Secretary Michael Gove is said to want to level the playing field between Commonwealth and EU migrants.
Ministers have also been encouraged by signs the EU may be starting to accept that curbs to free movement could be needed. Brexit vote was just a spasm,
says Cable – Page 14